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Thank you to all of our supporters and followers over the past 2 years.

Miss Fraser will be blogging with her new class in 2016 on the Hurley’s Heroes blog. Click to visit! We are looking forward to becoming even bigger and better in 2016 and can’t wait to start working on projects with other classes.

Today, all of the 3/4 students were lucky enough to Skype with the Museum of Natural Science in North Carolina, USA.

We spoke to Kaytee, who showed us at least 5 different animals and insects that some people may have an aversion to or have many misconceptions about.

First, we met the Ball Python (Python regius).

Ball Python

We learnt that the python can open it’s jaws to the size of it’s head – the jaws don’t actually come unhinged but are held on by really stretchy muscles. Pythons take a long time to digest their food.

Then, we met an animal that a lot of people are scared of – a tarantula!

Tarantulas are “hairy”!

Tarantulas look hairy but these are sort of spines on their body. Tarantulas are very fragile. Did you know that if a Tarantula’s leg breaks off, it can regenerate?!

Then, we met a “fancy” rat!

Fancy Rat

Rats are actually quite clean animals – they don’t carry any more diseases than a dog or a cat. Rats are also very smart! There is a type of rat in Africa that can be trained to assist in finding missing persons.

We also met a baby alligator!

Baby Alligator

Alligators and Crocodiles should never be kept as pets as they cannot be domesticated. Alligators are born with teeth and the mother alligator is very protective of her young.

Finally, we met a creature we didn’t even know existed – a hissing cockroach!

Hissing Cockroaches

A hissing cockroach emits air from holes in the side of it’s exoskeleton, which makes the hissing noise. When lots of them are on the forest floor and making the noise, it sounds like a snake which scares away predators!

We are very thankful to Kaytee and Matt from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences for taking time out of their evening to speak with us and share such interesting facts about amazing creatures!

We are hoping to learn more about these creatures next term when we start our Inquiry into life cycles of living things.

What do you want to learn about next term?

**Guest Post by Lily M**

All 3/4 students are making a movie in Music Class, including us. We’re creating a movie called “The Night at the Pet Shop” and it’s great! We already have the script, and the DVD front and back cover. The actors all have copies, and we just need to film the movie.

The plot is that animals that turn into zombies at night, like Werewolves. They have to be stopped before they invade the city!

We all have separate roles, and most of us have two. There’s Scriptwriter (which I am), Graphic Designer (me also) Music Composer, Actor, Backstage Crew (my final job) Editor, and Director.

Our movie is going great! The actors are practicing their lines at home. We’ll start filming on Tuesday, when we have Music. Lights! Camera! Action!

What’s one thing you found that other classes have in common with us? What’s one thing you have found that another class has different to us?

**Guest Post by Keely**

On Thursday 30th of July, all of Killara’s students and teachers came to school in their favourite pyjamas. We are supporting the Pyjama Foundation also known as The Love for Learning Foundation. It was made to make a positive impact on the lives of children in foster care. They match a child in foster care with an adult to do learning based activities for 1 hour. The adults are called Pyjama Angels. All together our school raised $693.50.

Did you enjoy coming to school in your pyjamas?

Do you think we could raise more money next year for such a worthy cause?

Killara’s Family Science Night is approaching us very quickly. On Wednesday 19th August we invite everyone to a fun night of “Making Waves – The Science of Light”. In order to make this night a huge success we ask for your participation in donating a range of resources. We request that these items are thoroughly cleaned and in good condition:

What was your favourite thing we did this Semester?

**Guest Post by Keely**

S.O.L.E stands for…

Self

Organised

Learning

Environment/s

S.O.L.E was a project started in India. It is a way of expressing your opinion where you are the boss of your brain. We are currently doing a S.O.L.E project. Our big idea is, the world would work without science. It is in relation to our Inquiry unit Science. You use different materials including the internet, books etc. You make a poster or power point to show your personal opinion. It is done in little groups. You don’t just have to work with one group you can change groups as much as you desire. I don’t believe the world would work without science because we wouldn’t have the medication we have now and the plague and other curable diseases would have killed most of us by now.